When we returned, the captain summoned everyone to the Navigator Room and we all sat around a large table. We were joined by the metallic lizard I had seen in the photograph earlier.

  “Good work, crew of the Food’s Errand. And especially a good pull by our…unchartered guest Daniel. He found the only salvage to be had. Surprising you found anything at all. Grover ships are usually squalid.”

  He fixed his green eyes upon me. The too-big mouth tipped into a smile.

  “As the salvage was obtained via the Food’s Errand’s salvage rights, each member attains rights in accordance with our charter. To crew: one lot each. Since you were the finder, Daniel, I will venture that you ought to receive a cut, same as the crew, same as me. We like to play the same game here, if you understand.”

  “So I don’t get to keep the cat?”

  “Alternatively,” Lorlux went on, ignoring me, “you may buy us out of our cuts. Now, Sleipnir, please advise on the ship's integrity. Any lasting damage?”

  The metallic lizard man perked up. “Yess. The lower, portsside bedroom is off limitss until further notice. The ssame goes for the boba room. We’ll be fine for now, but it will lower our fuel efficiency. We’ll want to sstop off ssomewhere for repairss.”

  “And how about the crew? How bad was it? Any significant injuries?”

  Val and Brufo admitted to cuts and scrapes, but no worse, and no one else.

  “Sadly the Errand herself took the brunt of it. Be on the watch for birds, they could still be lurking.”

  Lorlux nodded. “That is a very good point, Sleipnir. Valietta, please head up a sweep of the airship. Perhaps use the opportunity to show our new finder around.”

  “Captain, he’s not really in a state to go on a tour--”

  “He was fine,” Lorlux interjected. “Fine enough to fly down there and find that magnificent cat.”

  “Captain,” I said again. “About the cat. Can I keep it for now at least? Until we find out how much it’s worth?”

  He looked at Val. She gave a curt nod. I guess that meant she vouched for me. “Done,” said Lorlux.

  “You should probably get looked at too, Daniel,” Lorlux mused. “For your injuries as well as your mysterious…memory lapses. Unfortunately we have no nurse or healer aboard, so it will again be wherever we stop off…hmm…let’s see here…”

  The Navigator’s Room was lined with baskets stuffed with rolled up maps. He dug around then rolled a map out onto the table.

  “Ah. Well, hmm. It so happens that we’re pretty far out, as a result of our prior ventures. I suppose that makes it Lonelyport, clearly. We shan’t try the westward current, it’s too dangerous. And we certainly don’t want to head south and get any closer to the Grovers’ accursed Tree of Life.”

  “There’s nothing else?” Val said quietly. “Nothing at all.”

  “No. I’m sorry Valietta. It’s the closest town in many fathoms.”

  Sorry? I thought. I wondered why Lorlux needed to be sorry.

  “About four days it looks like,” Brufo grunted, peering at the map.

  After the captain adjourned the meeting, Val took me along for her sweep of the airship. To me, it was a tour. It was supposed to be, anyway. She showed me bedrooms (seven functional, plus the captain’s quarters topside), leisure room, dining room, library, sauna, bathrooms, workshop, engine room, observatorium, storage, and finally the kitchen.

  The kitchen was a disaster. As soon as we stepped in the bright overhead lighting hummed on. Pots, pans and utensils were scattered everywhere. When the lights turned on, three geese emerged from the pantry, squawking.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  My fists balled up instinctively.

  Val opened the window. They began to peck at her.

  “Get out of here, idiots, come on!”

  They found an overturned bag of rice behind her and began to eat it. I wrested it from them and then threw it out the window, and the geese made a mad scramble to follow the bag to its doom. I closed the window.

  “Smooth,” Val said.

  “Honestly maybe I should have fought them and saved the rice.”

  We began to clean up.

  [Neatness: +1 (2)] floated near Val.

  “So what’s that neatness thing anyway?”

  “It’s a perk I have. It gives me stat bonuses when I tidy up.” She laughed. “If my mother knew I took this...”

  She got her Neatness up to (5) and then the skill seemed to stop proccing. It did help her go fiendishly fast at the rest of the cleanup. There was nothing the birds had not gotten into. Cabbages? Munched. Raw pasta? Bit up. Meat? Not a trace. Bread? Just crumbs left.

  “Oh. My. Skies.”

  Brufo stood in the doorway. He had changed into a black toque. His utensils clattered to the floor and he fell to his knees.

  “No!! MY KITCHEN!!!”

  His howls reverberated throughout the ship.

  Val put her hand on his shoulder. “They ate it all…I’m sorry.”

  “This is gonna be a problem,” Brufo said.

  I decided I would go see about my bedroom. I found it with ramen thrown all over the bed still. I was hungry, but I wasn’t about to risk it by eating bed ramen. I began the task of cleaning up. Val had shown me where there were a few closets with cleaning supplies. I made good use of them.

  When I finished I wandered around but the only person I saw was Lorlux through the window of the navigation room, steering. The cat perched on the table looking over his shoulder as he steered.

  Finally I found them all topside, save Sleipnir, who I had not actually been introduced to anyway (I guessed since he was the mechanic he was deep belowdecks working the engine room). They were fishing, somehow. In the sky.

  As I approached, Tamiro spun over. He seemed to be leading the activity.

  “We’ve got more rods, hold on Daniel. I’ll grab you one. Here. Now come stand by a rail, make sure no one’s near you, and cast off! Have you fished before?”

  I nodded, remembering summers as a kid fishing at mountain lakes with my dad while camping.

  “I think I know what I’m doing. But, how do you fish in the air?”

  “What do you mean, how do you fish in the air? That’s what fishing is!”

  I cast the line out and sat on a bench. There was a sinker that hovered when it got out there, letting the hooked line dangle. As I recalled, fishing meant A whole lot of sitting around. It was damp out, misty and windy, the ship proceeding at breakneck pace. We weren’t catching a lot.

  Out of the fog, Val came and sat beside me. Her line was already out.

  “So, it’s probably a good time to go over the rules of our world. You asked me earlier.”

  She began to explain. How everyone starts at Level 1. How our stats don’t increase much over time, levels are primarily about skilling up and getting perks. Every five levels, you’ll get to upgrade something or pick something new. Every 25 levels, a Trial is required in order to level up further. Also every 25 levels, you can decide if you want to continue with the same class or multiclass.

  “So in summation there’s no max level, though as you saw with me you need to pass a trial to bank XP again once you reach level 25 in your current class.”

  “Thanks Val. That’s super helpful. So I’ll get a perk at Level 10. I already have one to select.”

  “What are you going to pick?”

  “I don’t really know what there is?”

  “It’s just as simple as activating the [+Perk] menu button when you’re ready. Whatever your intent is, subconscious or not, it will match you with the right perk. It doesn’t like, require your actual knowledge of the perks, if that makes sense.”

  “I think so.”

  So, what’s the story of this world then? I feel like I know nothing. There’s just no land? Nothing at all?”

  The fog was growing deeper.

  Val nodded. “Pretty much. Some civilizations have origin myths where there used to be land, that disappeared. There are floating lands, and even floating continents, but it’s far between everything in Weywyrd so it just looks like wind mostly when we’re travelling like this. If you go down far enough, below the clouds, in the Cloud Sea, there are ruins, as you might have surmised. Your class, the Driften Waker, specializes in ruin exploration.”

  Just then, there were a series of thumping sounds coming from the front of the Fool’s Errand.

  “Fish incoming!” I heard Tamiro shout. “School of fish!”

  Val braced herself. I saw her gritting her teeth. Then I saw them coming like shadows through the fog. Wriggling things, as big as Brufo’s forearm. Their fins were lengthier than any I’d seen on Earth. Like they’d adapted for flying. Maybe they had the [Wind Rider] skill.

  They collided with us with wet slaps, mouths gaping dumbly.